It’s been a while. Life simply got in the way and refused me the time and inclination to write. However, it’s a new year, and I just had an encounter that begs recording, at least in the parameters of my life and what increasingly matters.

Earlier this morning I made passing eye contact with a woman in our waiting room. Some barely perceptible click occurred and I glanced back to discover her doing the same thing. No nods, no smiles of recognition, but the click was a bit louder. I allowed that to linger for several seconds waiting for the “Aha!” that never came, so I simply completed my tasks and returned to my office. Thirty minutes later new business brought me back through the waiting room and this time we both began with, “Aren’t you…..”

We first knew each other in 1976 when I was a first year English teacher and she was a sophomore. A few years later I became an elementary school principal; she got married and had children who attended the school. Since it’s Vermont, after a 10-year circuitous trip in and out of being a principal, I returned as a high school principal, and one of her children was a freshman. So, after 35 years we spent 35 minutes playing “Do you remember…?” and “Where is…”

This was such a rich encounter. It illustrates not only the jewel of connections and how we touch each others lives, but also reinforces the notion from Marian Wright Edleman in her little book The Measure of Our Success, “…that many fruits of your labor will not become manifest for many, many years.”